07.28.08
Posted in 2008 election, Elections, Voter ID, Voting Rights, displaced voters, voter registration, voter suppression, voting tagged 2008 election, battleground states, displaced voters, Elections, home foreclosures, Voter ID, voter registration, Voting Rights at 10:07 pm by bluebanshee
Overlooked in the discussions of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and the bursting of the housing bubble is the plight of these formerly stable homeowners when it comes to being able to vote in the upcoming Presidential election.
The numbers of those who have lost their homes just this year is staggering. Almost a million homes lost in the first six months of this year:
Foreclosures are up 120%. Some 220,000 homes were lost to repossession in the last quarter, and another 739,714 entered foreclosure in the first quarter. That’s one in every 171 American homes involved in what Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson euphemistically calls the “housing correction”…. http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2008/7/28/142127/083 Read the rest of this entry »
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07.13.08
Posted in Elections, John Kerry, Veterans Administration policy on voter registration, Vets + voting, Voting Rights, politics, voter registration, voter suppression, voting tagged Elections, voter registration drives, Veterans Administration, veterans + voting at 5:13 pm by bluebanshee
Those who have been wounded in service to their country deserve better. The Veterans’ Administration has decreed that voter registration drives may not be conducted in VA facilities. The VA is putting unnecessary barriers between veterans and their right to vote. At any given time there may be 100,000 vets living in VA facilities — and the number is growing as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan drag on.
Who more than our wounded warriors deserves to have their right to exercise the franchise? Who indeed? These vets have put their lives on the line and now the VA says that voter registration activities would “interfere with” delivery of services at VA facilities.
Connecticut Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz, expresses the frustration of many Americans when hearing of the VA policy against voter registration drives.
“The practice of banning voter registration drives at veterans facilities is a slap in the face to people who have served, put their lives on the line and sacrificed the most for our fundamental freedoms,” Connecticut Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz, a Democrat, said in a Friday [July 12] news conference. http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080712/NEWS/80712006/-1/rss Read the rest of this entry »
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06.19.08
Posted in DOJ, Daily Show, David Iglesias, Elections, Voting Rights, politics, voter fraud, voter suppression, voting tagged David Iglesias, DOJ, voter fraud at 12:46 am by bluebanshee
Because he refused to prosecute bogus “voter fraud” cases in New Mexico, U.S. Attorney David Iglesias was fired by the Bush Administration. A dyed-in-wool Republican, Iglesias was disillusioned by the politization of the DOJ under John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales.
In a recent appearance on Comedy Central’s Daily Show with Jon Stewart Iglesias won audience applause by referencing characters in Star Wars movies:
“I thought I was working with the Jedi Knights and I was working for the Sith Lords.”
The video is from Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, broadcast June 16, 2008. Find it here: http://rawstory.com/news08/2008/06/17/fired-us-attorney-i-was-working-for-the-sith-lords/
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06.18.08
Posted in Barack Obama, Elections, Voter ID, Voting Rights, paper ballots, politics, voter fraud, voter suppression, voting, voting machines tagged Elections, politics, Obama, voter suppression, Voter ID, 2008 election at 10:13 pm by bluebanshee
Every election cycle in the U.S. there are votes that never get counted –but not because of computer glitches on paperless voting machines, as if often assumed. The computer glitches happen and no paper trail is there to give silent evidence of the missing votes. Much energy has been devoted to replacing paperless voting machines with systems that have a voter verified paper record without also considering the other source of missing votes.
What am I talking about? What other type of missing vote is there besides the ones lost inside the electronic world of computerized voting machines? The answer, of course is that the other type of votes that never get counted are the ones that never get cast. Tragically millions of votes are never cast in jurisdictions across America each election cycle for a wide variety of reasons –partisan dirty tricks, voter suppression, voter intimidation, purged voting rolls, misinformation campaigns targeted at certain groups of voters, or simply voting machine shortages in inner city precincts. It is these uncounted votes that never show up in the winning (or losing) margin but in close races can mean the difference between victory or defeat. Read the rest of this entry »
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06.04.08
Posted in DOJ, Democrats, Elections, Von Spakovsky, Voter ID, Voting Rights, politics, voter fraud, voter registration, voter suppression, voting tagged DOJ, Von Spakovsky, voter suppression, voter fraud, IN voter ID law at 3:37 pm by bluebanshee
As previously noted on this blog, the Republican party has a long history of voter suppression, dating back at least as far as William Rehnquist’s activities in Arizona, long before he ascended to the U.S. Supreme Court. We have chronicled the effort by the Bush administration to foist Hans von Spakovsky on the Federal Election commission, an effort that, fortunately for American democracy, has come to an inglorious end with von Spakovsky’s withdrawal from consideration for the post.
One of the recent GOP tactics has been to push for legislation requiring voters to show ID in order to vote. To listen to many Republicans the greatest danger to the country is voter fraud, i.e., folks casting ballots they are not entitled to. Most often the boogie man is the specter of illegal aliens voting but no proof is ever offered. Read the rest of this entry »
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02.18.08
Posted in Elections, Voter ID, Voting Rights, politics, voter registration tagged ACORN, voter registration drives, Voting Rights at 5:54 pm by bluebanshee
A federal judge Monday permanently blocked several voter registration requirements that raised a furor before the 2006 elections because many felt they unfairly hindered voter registration drives.
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/02/voter_registration_drives_will.html
This ruling might be misunderstood as relating to voter ID requirements but actually it pertains to rules that affect the ability of third-party groups like ACORN to conduct voter registration drives.
They required registration drive workers to register and to undergo training, to list detailed information on each registration form they help with and for every gatherer to turn in forms in person, not through an organizer.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen O’Malley blocked those rules permanently, agreeing with several voters rights groups that they go against the country’s desire to let as many people vote as possible. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in Barack Obama, Double bubble, ES&S, Elections, Hillary Clinton, Voting Rights, Washington Republican caucus, paper ballots, politics, voting, voting machines tagged California primary, Double bubble, Elections, ES&S, politics, vote counting, Washington caucuses at 3:28 pm by bluebanshee
Making ‘one person one vote’ a reality in this country
In the rush-rush hurry-hurry to announce election results there have already been some miscounts and uncounted ballots this primary season. This should not happen. If we are going to truly be a democracy of “one person one vote” we need to be sure that all ballots cast by eligible voters are counted.
For example, there’s the recent example in the Washington state Republican caucuses where the winner was declared in a close race before all the votes were counted. Entire counties did not have their results included in the tally: Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in Barack Obama, Elections, Maryland voting, Voter ID, Voting Rights, election day registration tagged Barack Obama, election day registration, Elections, Maryland primary, Maryland voting, Voter ID, Voting Rights at 12:06 pm by bluebanshee
Eliminating unnecessary barriers for young voters
Word came recently from Maryland that one barrier to voting by young citizens had been removed — at least in that state. The Washington Post headline says it all: “One Teen’s Campaign to Restore Voting Rights.”
Last month, Boltuck, along with her father and a sympathetic state senator, persuaded Maryland’s top legal minds to restore the right of suffrage to at least 50,000 teens who will turn 18 between the Feb. 12 primary and the Nov. 4 election. http://tinyurl.com/2pp3fl
Sarah Boltuck fought all the way to the state election board and then the attorney general’s office to attain the right to vote in the February Maryland primary. The problem that caused all the controversy was that the high school senior had not yet attained the age of 18 by the February primary date. But Boltuck would be 18 in time to vote in November and felt she should be able to participate in the process of selecting the candidates whose names would appear on the general election ballot come November.
“I thought that was one of my rights as a citizen of Maryland,” said Boltuck, who will be 18 in July. “I had assumed that when I registered to vote, it’d be no problem.”
She called attention to a little-noticed change in interpretation of state law. Maryland was one of nine states, including Virginia, that allowed 17-year-olds to vote in primaries if they reached 18 by the general election. (The District does not.) But the Maryland State Board of Elections quietly halted the practice in December 2006 in response to a state court ruling. http://tinyurl.com/2pp3fl Read the rest of this entry »
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01.12.08
Posted in Being There, Elections, Peter Sellers, Voter ID, Voting Rights, politics, voting tagged Being There, Peter Sellers, politics, Voter ID, Voting Rights at 3:56 pm by bluebanshee
I have fond memories of the 1979 movie “Being There” starring Peter Sellers. It is a skillful dissection of politics and power where the audience is “in” on the joke from the beginning.
For those who aren’t familiar with this last Peter Sellers flick here’s a brief synopsis: the story revolves around Chance, a simple gardener who has spent his entire life with “the old man” in a big house where he tends the garden and watches TV. After the death of “the old man,” Chance, is evicted and wanders the streets of Washington D.C. where he encounters Rand, a wealthy business man. Rand takes Chance under his wing. Through a series of mis-understandings, Chance becomes known as Chauncey Gardener, whose utterances about gardening are interpreted as evidence of deep wisdom and understanding. Chauncey becomes a media darling who is touted by political power brokers to become the next president
So what does this movie have to do with politics today? Nothing, really — except that it illustrates the role of the media and political spinmeisters in creating a political candidate.
However, it also provides an interesting frame for thinking about citizenship and the demand for Real ID at every turn in our daily lives, including the vote in some states. Read the rest of this entry »
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11.07.07
Posted in Barack Obama, Elections, Voting Rights, politics, voter suppression, voting tagged Barack Obama, dirty tricks, Elections, voter suppression, voting at 5:17 pm by bluebanshee
The headline says: Tarrant County investigates bogus election flyers. But the ugly backstory is that the official-looking but phony flyers were found in a heavily Hispanic area and were aimed at suppressing minority votes. They had an official-looking seal and stated that election day had been changed to Saturday (instead of Tuesday). If a voter acted on this mis-direction they would find out that the election was over and they were out of luck.
Read all about it here in the Dallas Morning News: http://tinyurl.com/yrz6jz
There is an investigation underway but my prediction is that the culprit(s) will never be found, much less found guilty in a court of law.
Elections Administrator Steve Raborn said there’s no way to know how many fliers, which were in English and Spanish, were distributed.
“It’s discouraging if someone is trying to suppress the vote rather than encouraging people to vote,” Mr. Raborn said.
He said he was particularly disturbed that someone designed the flier to make them appear as if they came from his office. Mr. Raborn said the fliers were found in the heavily minority Rosemont and Worth Heights neighborhoods in Fort Worth. Read the rest of this entry »
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